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Maranda Marvin

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Cut down on energy consumption by turning off the lights of businesses & office buildings when they are closed.

Every time I travel down the road at night in the city of Houston, I am amazed at how much energy is being pumped into those nicely, sculpted buildings with the crystal clear windows at night. At night, when absolutely no one is in them.

Yes, yes, yes, I am a realist and I know crime is probably one of the reasons we keep on all of these decorative lights on our downtown buildings, our malls, grocery stores, and gas stations (while we sleep)... But maybe we can think of some other way to save that energy at night?

And yes, yes, I know not all of us are sleeping at night, many of us that live in the city are working, but I really think we could be a little more conservative in that area.

Topics: energy consumption environment oil solar energy use
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  • Dema Karim

    • +1
    Sep 6 2011: yeah, I've always noticed huge office buildings with the lights turned on inside when there is clearly no one there. the energy consumption from that must be huge. maybe dimming the lights would be a good idea, and starting a campaign for that should start within government buildings because they themselves do this as well. or, the best thing to do would be to keep the lights lit on the first floor only, as there is no need to prevent crime from the upper floors from the outside, at least.
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      Maranda Marvin

      • 0
      Sep 6 2011: Dimming the lights is a GREAT idea! I realize it would be a huge financial undertaking but it really is quite ridiculous to say we (as a city or town) conserving energy but we leave all kinds of lights on 24 hours a day.

      I know it is not an easy thing to change, but I think we really need to do something. I am going to get in touch with the city of Houston (that is where I am from) and see what kind of answers I get.

      • Dema Karim

        • +1
        Sep 7 2011: That's good, and maybe I might be able to start something here in dallas. You know, in rooms that have an entire wall as a window, I think it would be even better to turn the lights off completely during the day, unless it's dark outside.

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